But if the end comes today, this will have been enough
by audi katia
Summary: They saved the world and earned the right to cuddle. ::Written before the season finale, so everyone is alive and happy. This is literally just happiness and cuddles with all the members of the team from season one and two, with a few bonus characters as well.::


_Okay, a few things to note before reading this: I wrote this before the last episode premiered. I had anticipated sad feelings with the conclusion of this season and had wanted to write happy, cuddle fic to ward away any sadness. Unfortunately, I did not know the extend of how sad the last episode would be, so this is AU as of the finale. This is cuddle fic written under the assumption that everyone would be around at the end of the episode._

_That being said, please enjoy this little bit of warmth and happiness. Also, the title comes from a softer world comic of the same name._

_**Disclaimer**: I own nothing._

* * *

The Reach has left their orbit, Black Beetle is no longer a threat, and the world is saved.

Such a feat calls for paperwork and public relations communication and all manner of legal work. So, naturally, everyone convenes in the warehouse, or warehome as Dick is quick to call it, in an impromptu decision to recharge their batteries before tackling another day as superheroes.

"Collectively speaking, how much of that was pulled out of our asses?" Mal asks, exhaustion evident in every syllable. He nestles closer to Karen, who's curled into his lap, fingers running back and forth over his encircling arms absentmindedly. She smiles softly as he brushes a kiss to the curve of her cheek and presses against him with equal happiness.

"About ninety percent," Zatanna answers, her voice muffled from spooning into Raquel's back. Raquel gives an amused snort at Zatanna's answer, one hand moving blindly over the floor to shove listlessly at Mal's leg.

"Give us some credit, girl," Karen scolds. Her eyes narrow at Zatanna until the sorceress peaks at her, blue eyes wide with surprise. Then Karen smiles with the joke, "It was only about seventy-five percent."

A few chuckles sound out, but mostly everyone moves in closer to each other in comfort and solidarity.

La'gaan sits on the edges of the group, situated awkwardly between Artemis and Kaldur, sitting on his ankles and unable to fully relax.

"I am sorry for not having faith in you, Kaldur'ahm," La'gaan apologizes, the words clearly having been on his mind for some time.

Kaldur angles his head slightly from where it rests against Artemis's thigh to smile wanly at La'gaan who almost instantaneously relaxes enough to settle more comfortably.

Artemis then meets his red eyes with her own contrite ones and she smiles at him in equal apology with her bottom lip caught between her teeth sheepishly.

"I'm sorry Deathstroke shot you in the knee," she counters, glancing down at his knee and wincing. The whole room gives a collective shudder and for a moment M'gann looks guiltily at La'gaan.

But he catches her eye and gives a subtle nod, allowing her to nestle back into the spot she's carved out for herself between Conner and the back of the couch.

"Don't worry about it," he answers, eyes flicking back to Artemis at the last note.

Kaldur nudges his legs against La'gaan until he contorts himself to leaning against the arm of the couch with his legs bent over the outstretched legs of his former hero.

"If we all sit around and apologize," Dick cuts across from where he's sitting next to Artemis, his nose nudging affectionately into her shoulder, "this is going to be a very long night."

"And you'll lose your voice from apologizing so much," Zatanna calls out in sing-song, eliciting groans from the group.

Dick sticks his tongue out good-naturedly as Raquel looks over her shoulder to give Zatanna a single raised eyebrow. Roy even reaches over Billy's form where his legs are pressed against Zatanna to smack her lightly on the leg.

Kaldur frowns at the motion and moves his hand towards Roy's to pull it away from Zatanna. Their hands remain loosely linked as he addresses the room at large.

"Suffice to say," he announces, his voice calm and steady in a way they all had missed, "we all have much to apologize for and much to forgive. Can we agree that any and all grievances are forgiven?"

Everyone makes quiet noises of agreement, little grunts and sighs permeating the comfortable air around them. Raquel breaks the otherwise solemn atmosphere with a fond chuckle.

"Damn," she snorts, twisting in Zatanna's grip to look over at Kaldur's body sprawled out next to Roy's. "I've missed you around."

"And I have missed all of you," he responds warmly, eyes lighting on Raquel for a moment before sweeping around the cluster of friends.

"I've missed the sound of your voice," Zatanna sighs dreamily. She perks up from her spot beside Zatanna and drapes herself over Billy, ignoring his rapidly blushing face, as she leans in towards Kaldur. "Hey, can you say something backwards?"

"Zee, not in front of the kiddies," Dick chides, the warning faint in his voice as he glances over to the bundle of the younger members in the corner of their pile.

"Read as, not in front of his little brother," Barbara clarifies, knocking her knuckles against Dick's shin. He grins at her motion and shifts his leg enough to hook it over her form, locking her against him.

"I'm part of the night, you guys," Tim chimes, voice a few shades of indignant. "Not just a little kid."

Gar outright laughs at that, his voice sputtering in giggles as he muffles the sound against Tim's arm. Tim looks down at his friend resting on his arm only to find Gar staring back up at him mischievously.

"Boobs," Gar taunts and is instantly rewarded with Tim's cheeks glowing bright red in embarrassment.

"Gar!" M'gann admonishes from the couch, her hand moving forward just enough to tweak Gar's hair.

"Sorry, sis," he chuckles, leaning back against her legs in apology.

She pats him gently and he makes a humming sound and then sidles up closer to Tim in wordless apology. Tim shrugs it off, cheeks still pink beneath his mask as he nudges at Gar's elbow in response.

Lian lets out a squeaking yawn that brings everyone's attention to the small baby still cuddled in Jade's arms. Roy looks up from his position on the floor a few feet away from the couch to wave cutely at his daughter.

"Are you two still holding hands?" Jade wonders with blatant curiosity, eyeing her estranged husband and his best friend still sprawled out on the floor together.

"I'd hold yours, but you're holding Lian," Roy charms, smile lopsided with tiredness.

Several people blink at the response, but Jade merely smiles coyly at him, baring just the tips of her teeth at his words.

"That's surprisingly sweet of you, Red," she purrs, pursing her lips into a kiss in his direction.

"Shouldn't we be arresting you or something?" Conner says with mild concern, pausing in petting Wolf. Wolf's head perks up from where it had been resting on the couch arm to whine pitifully until Conner scratched behind his ear. Sphere blinks yellow beside Wolf and Conner leans over to pat her as well.

"Shut it, cub scout," Jade retorts without any real snap in her voice. "I'm here on invitation." She says it with such self-importance, casting a lascivious grin at the rest of the group as she threads her hand not holding Lian through Artemis's ponytail once more. She glances over the side of the couch at Wally's head in Artemis's lap, the crown of his head resting gently against Kaldur's. "Thanks again, West."

"You invited my sister?" Artemis blinks down in surprise at Wally, twisting her hand over his chest to intertwine his fingers with her own.

"Of course I did, babe," he smiles up at her, resting their joined hands over the lightning bolt loud and bright on his chest.

"My hero," Artemis teasingly swoons, a hint of a real blush spreading over the bridge of her nose.

"West..." Jade says warningly, in a tone that suggests that perhaps she hadn't left all her weapons at the door like she had promised.

Wally glances up at Jade, gulping largely as he revises his words. "She threatened me."

"My hero," Artemis sighs sarcastically, her tone somewhat belied by the fondness in her voice. She pauses for a second, pulling her hand from his to run her fingers through his hair. "Where are your goggles?"

"Bart took them," Wally scowls, arms crossed over his chest and eyes narrowed at his cousin on the other side of the group pile.

"It's part of my new legacy as Kid Flash," Bart shrugs, snapping the goggles more securely to his face.

"Give them back," Wally half-orders. Head on Artemis's lap, his torso spans over Dick beside Artemis and his legs over Tim beside Dick. He kicks at his cousin with sleepy gusto, much to Tim's dismay.

He shifts, one leg bent with his knee resting against Gar's chest, the other hooked over Tim's ankle, and avoids Wally's kick with ease.

"No, I'm sleeping," he informs him. "You can't bother me while I'm asleep."

And with that, he turns on his side, his face now pressed into Jaime's chest and his body snuggling closer, effectively trapping Jaime's arm in his grip.

Wally makes another half-hearted attempted before Barbara reaches over her head to poke him in the stomach.

"Stop moving, Wally," she commands from her spot between Dick's knees. She waits until Wally complies before resting her head back on his stomach, her shining hair a nice complement to the bright yellow of his uniform.

The ease of the moment settles everyone except for the handful of kids on the smaller couch at the other end of the pile. Virgil looks to his side at Eduardo, Tye, and Asami before speaking up hesitantly.

"Thanks for letting us stay."

"Are you kidding me?" Cassie exclaims from her perch on the smaller couch. "You helped save the day! Of course you can stay."

"Well, still," Virgil shrugs sheepishly as he eyes the rest of the room nodding in unanimous agreement. "Thanks."

"Gracias," Ed pipes up beside him.

"Arigato!" Asami cries sleepily from where she's curled up cat-like between Ed and Tye. The two boys smile over her supine form and both rest a protective hand on her ankle and shoulder, respectively.

Directly beside Tye, Jaime turns to rest his chin on one of Cassie's bent knees jutting out over the side of the couch, despite her attempts to tuck her legs under her.

"I'm glad you helped," Jaime grins at his friend, moving his hand to grip Tye's wrist companionably.

"I'm just glad you back to being Jaime again," Tye answers, nudging his shoulder into Jaime's, flashing him an equally wide grin.

"Me too," Jaime nods, eyes wide in agreement.

"Me three," Bart pipes up with sleepy fervor, his voice muffled by Jaime's hoodie.

Above them, Cassie is poking Arsenal repeatedly in the shoulder. He's leaning against her bodily, his legs stretched out over the outside arm of their small couch.

"Come on," she tells him, eyes narrowed with the command.

"No."

She stops poking him to fold her arms over her chest and stares at him unblinking until finally he opens one eye under his domino mask to glance up at her. She holds her ground resolutely, staring at him until finally he sighs like one condemned.

"Fine," he allows, stretching the word out as though pained.

"Say 'thank you for letting me stay,'" she orders briskly, gesturing out at the rest of the team who watches the scene with unsuppressed amusement.

He rolls his eyes, an impressive feat for someone wearing a mask, but he eventually grits out his gratitude.

"Thank you for letting me stay," he mutters, before glancing back at Cassie who shrugs her approval.

"No problem, snookums," Dick responds, all-too-happily for someone who had to report to Batman in the morning.

Arsenal lets out a slight growl, but Cassie smoothes away his annoyance with a surprisingly gentle hand against his shaved head.

Jade watches with a look of someone deeply unimpressed and then turns to Roy dispassionately.

"He's never allowed to babysit," she informs him in a tone that immediately, and shockingly, reminds everyone of a soccer mom.

"Yes dear," Roy responds tiredly, one hand raised to give Jade a thumbs up.

"Oh God," Artemis groans, shaking her foot to nudge Roy. "Don't get all domestic on me."

Jade laughs and shifts a sleeping Lian in her arms to lean in closer to her sister, eyes bright and sly as she stage-whispers in her ear, "Would you rather I go into detail about-"

"NO!"

The entire group collectively cuts her off, except for Zatanna who has perked up from her spot beside Raquel to look interestingly at Jade. Billy gives her a stern look and she sighs, defeated.

"Killjoys," she mutters as she settles back against Raquel.

"You know what would make this moment perfect?" Conner cuts across, still eyeing Jade at the other end of the couch with a small amount of mistrust.

"A milkshake?" Gar responds immediately, his answer followed by an impressive growl of his stomach. Wally and Bart make identical noises of agreement, but Conner shakes his head.

"Sleep," he answers resolutely, his own eyes fluttering shut as he pulls M'gann closer to him and breathes in the long missed scent of her hair.

"I'm with you, brother," Mal agrees across the group, sleepily nodding his head where it rests against Karen's.

"Bart's already asleep," Cassie giggles from her seat on the smaller couch, looking over Jaime's shoulder at Bart who doesn't even move at her announcement.

Jaime sighs and tries to shift Bart from pressing into his arm. He disentangles his arm from Bart's grasp and instead wraps it around the small speedster, letting the feeling come back into his extremity.

"Not 'sleep, 'ermano," Bart slurs, eyes still shut as he presses himself even closer to Jaime.

"Then give me my goggles," Wally responds, the theft still not forgotten.

Bart lets out an exaggerated snore and the room titters with quiet giggles before the room falls into a gentle silence.

One by one, each member of the team, old members and new members, retired members and leaguers, friends and family, falls into exhausted and dreamless slumber.

* * *

Several hours later, Red Tornado arrives at the warehome to find the pile of worn out superheroes. He eyes them all, stoic and calculating, before giving a surprisingly sentient sigh of affection.

"Human customs still allude me."

* * *

_Please review!_


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